Atom Unit State Consistency in Fail-Operational Vehicle Switches
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Solution Overview
Problem
In autonomous vehicles, fail-operational systems face challenges in maintaining state consistency during handover from a primary to a secondary component, especially when the primary component fails, leading to potential safety risks due to inconsistent state updates and reliance on unreliable or time-consuming state retrieval methods.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising an atom unit, buffer, state keeping unit, and peripheral unit, where the atom unit receives and saves messages and states, initiates message sending, and updates states in a repository, ensuring consistent state storage and independent operation, even if the primary execution unit fails, using separate hardware and error detection mechanisms like voting logic.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If states are read from the failing part, then state information is available, but reliability is compromised due to low reliability of the failing component
Solution Approach 1:
The system separates state storage from execution by introducing a dedicated state keeping unit that independently maintains state information, isolating it from the failing execution unit. This segmentation ensures that state data reliability is not compromised by execution unit failures.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism (the state keeping unit with atomic update operations) between the execution unit and external state storage. This intermediary ensures that only consistent, verified state updates are transferred, filtering out potentially corrupted data from failing components.
2Stability of the object's composition
If external state storage is used, then state consistency is improved, but there is a risk that states are not consistent with messages sent to peripheral devices due to timing gaps
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by maintaining a buffer of pending state updates and message transmissions. Before committing state changes to external storage, the system ensures all related messages are queued and will be sent, preventing timing gaps between state updates and peripheral communications.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms where the system monitors the completion of message transmissions to peripheral devices before finalizing state updates in external storage. This feedback loop ensures that state consistency is maintained by verifying that all associated communications are complete before committing changes.
3Loss of information
If states are requested from sensors and units during handover, then current vehicle states can be obtained, but time is lost which may compromise safety
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-caching state information in the state keeping unit during normal operation, before failures occur. When handover is needed, this pre-stored state information is immediately available, eliminating the time delay of requesting states from sensors and units during the critical handover period.
4Reliability
If the fail-operational part is less complex with fewer parts, then reliability is improved, but functionality is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal state keeping unit that serves multiple functions: maintaining state information during normal operation, providing consistent state data during handover, and ensuring state consistency across different execution units. This single component performs multiple critical functions, enabling the fail-operational part to maintain full functionality despite reduced complexity.
Data Source
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AI summary
Provided is a system for updating one or more states relating to a message in a vehicle, the system comprising a first execution unit (104), a state keeping unit (106), and a peripheral unit (102), it is an object of the present invention to improve the reliability of the states. The object of the present invention is achieved by an atom unit (103) and a buffer, wherein the atom unit (103) is configured to carry out the steps: a) receiving a first signal (110) from the first execution unit (104), indicating the message and the states; b) saving the message and the states in the buffer; c) receiving a second signal (120) from the first execution unit (104), requesting the initiation of sending the message; d) sending (125) the message to the peripheral unit (102); and e) sending a third signal (135) to the state keeping unit (106) to update the states.